Before you start
- Your website URL and access to your own analytics (Google Analytics, Plausible, etc.)
- Google Search Console access for your site (free)
- A free Similarweb account
- 30-45 minutes for a thorough first pass
- A simple spreadsheet to log discovered competitors with notes on why they matter to YOUR business
The playbook
6 steps
Pull your own top-converting keywords from Google Search Console first
Open Search Console → Performance. Sort by 'Clicks' (not impressions) - these are the queries actually driving traffic to your site. Then sort by 'Position' to find your top 20 ranking queries. These are YOUR keywords - the ones your competitors are competing with you on. Starting from your own data (not the competitor's data) anchors the discovery to YOUR business, not someone else's.
Expected outcome
Top 20 commercial keywords your site ranks for, sorted by clicks and position.
Search your top 5 keywords in incognito and log every domain in positions 1-10
Open incognito browser (kills personalization). Search each of your top 5 keywords. Note the domains in positions 1-10 for each SERP. Domains appearing in 2+ of your SERPs are competing with YOU for YOUR traffic. This is the most direct competitor signal - it's not theoretical, it's measurable on the keywords your site actually depends on.
# Quick manual method: # 1. Open incognito browser # 2. Search your top keyword (from step 1) # 3. Note domains in positions 1-10 # 4. Repeat for next 4 keywords # 5. Domains appearing 2+ times = direct competitors for your trafficExpected outcome
5-10 SEO competitors logged based on overlap with your actual ranking keywords.
Paste your URL into Similarweb's Competitors tab for the traffic-overlap pass
Open similarweb.com, paste your URL, click Competitors. The free tier returns 5 traffic-overlap competitors - sites whose audience overlaps with yours. These may differ from your SEO competitors because traffic and keywords measure different things. Log them with 'source: similarweb-traffic-overlap'.
Expected outcome
5 traffic-overlap competitors added to your tracker.
Run your URL through Ahrefs (or Ubersuggest free tier) for the keyword-overlap pass
Ahrefs Site Explorer → Competing Domains. Returns domains ranking for the same keywords as your site. The top 10 are your true SEO competitors - measured against the full universe of keywords you both rank for, not just the 5 you sampled manually. Ubersuggest's free tier offers a similar feature with limited daily lookups.
Expected outcome
Top 10 keyword-overlap competitors captured.
Check Meta Ad Library and TikTok Creative Center for who's competing for your audience on social
Search your product/service category on Meta Ad Library. Brands running active ads in your category are your social-creative competitors. Repeat on TikTok Creative Center → Top Ads. Some of these competitors won't appear in your SEO lists - they're winning on attention channels instead. They still compete with you for the same buyers.
TipIf you're a small site, your social competitors are often bigger than your SEO competitors. Don't dismiss them - their creative is benchmark intelligence even if you're not yet competing on their scale.Expected outcome
5-10 social-creative competitors logged with platform tag.
Cross-reference the lists to find your real competitive priorities
Lay out: SEO competitors + traffic-overlap competitors + keyword-overlap competitors + social-creative competitors. Domains appearing in 2+ lists are YOUR Tier 1 competitors - they're competing across channels. Domains in 1 list are channel-specific (relevant for that channel only). This cross-reference is what separates 'a list of brands' from 'a tracking priority'.
Expected outcome
Tiered competitor list - Tier 1 (multi-channel) and Tier 2 (single-channel) clearly separated.
Shuttergen
Found your competitors? Now ship faster than them.
Small teams don't beat bigger competitors on budget - they beat them on creative velocity. Shuttergen generates on-brand ad variants in seconds, so a 2-person team can outship a 10-person creative team.
Pitfalls
What goes wrong
Starting from competitor research instead of your own keywords
If you start from 'who are my competitors?', you're guessing. If you start from 'what keywords do I actually rank for?', the competitors emerge from data. Always start with YOUR data first - it anchors discovery to YOUR business, not abstract category benchmarks.
Including category leaders that don't actually compete for your specific audience
The biggest brand in your category may target enterprise while you target small business, or US-only while you're Europe-focused. The relevant competitive lens is 'who competes for the customers I'm targeting' - not 'who's the biggest brand in my category'.
Ignoring social-creative competitors because you're a 'SEO-focused' site
Brands winning attention on Meta and TikTok are competing for your buyers' mindshare even if they don't appear in your SERPs. SEO is one channel; the buyer's attention is the real competitive surface.
Tracking too many competitors as a small team
Solo founders and small teams should track 3-5 in Tier 1, max. Above that, monitoring overhead exceeds the strategic value. Be ruthless about cutting; the goal is intelligence you can act on, not a comprehensive list.
Running discovery once and never re-checking
Your keyword profile changes as you publish content. Your competitive set shifts as new entrants emerge. Re-run this process every 3-4 months to keep the list accurate.
Limits
When this playbook won't work
- Brand-new sites with <50 ranking keywords - too little signal to anchor the discovery
- Hyper-local single-city service sites - international tooling datasets don't index regional players well
- Sites in stealth or pre-launch - run category-discovery instead until your own data exists
- Personal blogs or hobby sites where 'competitor' isn't a load-bearing business concept
Why starting from your own data matters more than starting from category research
Most competitor-discovery articles start from 'who are the players in your category?'. That's the wrong starting point for finding YOUR competitors. Category-level discovery surfaces market leaders; YOU may not actually compete with them. They serve different segments, different geographies, different price points. The relevant competitive set is 'who's competing for the specific traffic and customers MY site is going after' - and that data starts in YOUR Search Console.
Starting from your own keywords is what makes the discovery operationally useful. The competitors that emerge from your top-converting keywords are the competitors whose moves actually affect your business. They share your traffic. They share your buyers. They share your conversion funnel. Their moves are signal for you; category leaders' moves often aren't.
This approach scales down well for solo founders and small teams. Larger teams can afford to track 20+ competitors across multiple lenses. Solo founders cannot. The 'start from your data' approach naturally constrains the list to the 3-5 competitors that actually matter - which is the right number for a small team to act on.
Found your competitors? Now ship faster than them. Small teams don't beat bigger competitors on budget - they beat them on creative velocity. Shuttergen generates on-brand ad variants in seconds, so a 2-person team can outship a 10-person creative team.
What to do once you've found your competitors
The list is the input to weekly competitive intelligence work. Spend 15 minutes a week on Tier 1 competitors: new content shipped, new keywords ranking, new ads running, new pages. The weekly cadence is what compounds; quarterly discovery without weekly monitoring loses signal.
For each Tier 1 competitor, identify ONE thing you can learn from them. Their best-performing content. Their highest-converting landing page. Their evergreen-winner ad. Pick one, study it, then apply the lesson to your own work. Trying to compete on everything dilutes effort; picking one lesson per competitor focuses it.
Re-run the discovery quarterly. Your keyword profile changes; the competitive set shifts. Quarterly re-discovery is the minimum cadence to keep the list useful.
Internal: how to find your competitors, find competitors, how to find competitors of a website, competitor monitoring tools.
FAQ
Frequently asked
What's the fastest way to find MY website's competitors?
Can I find my competitors without paid tools?
How many competitors should a solo founder or small team track?
Should I use the competitors my CEO/founder thinks we have?
Are my SEO competitors the same as my business competitors?
How often should I refresh my competitor list?
What if my website is too new to have ranking keywords?
Related
Keep reading
Resource
How to find your competitors
First-person sister keyword.
Resource
How to find website competitors
Website-focused variant.
Resource
Find competitors
Multi-channel discovery.
Resource
Competitor monitoring tools
Ongoing monitoring stack.
Research
Anatomy Of Good Meta Ad Library
Creative-audit framework for your discovered set.
Found your competitors? Now ship faster than them.
Small teams don't beat bigger competitors on budget - they beat them on creative velocity. Shuttergen generates on-brand ad variants in seconds, so a 2-person team can outship a 10-person creative team.